Richard Sackett

OBITUARY

Source: Extracts from "THE REPERTORY", 9 Mar 1826 - 29 Dec 1831, Published
at St. Albans, Franklin County, Vermont, Compiled by: Diana Hibbert Bailey
1991.
(Researched by Sandra Mueller)

Repertory (St. Albans, VT), Thursday, July 24, 1828, page 3

"Died, in this village, on the morning of the 19th inst., Richard Sackett,
Esq., aged 51 years. Mr. Sackett was a valuable citizen and lived a regular
and industrious life. Though he had been at different times troubled with
rheumatism, he was generally healthy and athletic, till about a year and a
half before his death, when he was attacked with an acute disease of the
character of Influenza, as was stated, for he resorted to no regular medical
treatment at the time, but to such means as long experience had taught him
were useful in such cases. This complaint partially went off, but left his
system in a very irregular and unsettled state--his countenance exhibited
the Jaundiced tinge--his sturdy form became gradually emaciated, though he
kept most of the time about his ordinary business. He trusted greatly to the
strength of his constitution to remove the disorder, and it was seldom that
he resorted to the use of what is called apothecary medicines.

In the months of April and May last, he made trial of the far-famed but
destructive practice of steaming and the internal use of the most pungeant
and heating articles, in the form of tinctures and decoctions in large
quantities. This he pursued, under the guidance of an itinerant steam-doctor
by the name of Lee--until he became convinced from his own feelings that his
case was becoming much worse by this practice--consequently dismissed this
imposter in the art of healing--after this he ws unattended by any regular
physician till the forepart of the present July; when he was taken with
severe and incessant vomiting of black fluid--which continued with but
little interruption as long as he lived.

He was now attended by regular physicians but to no avail. The past-mort,
examination showed the main disorder in the inner coat of the stomach, which
were very much thickend and diseased; that part of it near its outlet was so
much swollen as to have rendered the passage for several days prior to
death, wholly closed. The larger and upper part of the stomach was likewise
diseased and its inner surface studded with flesh fungous like eminences in
a state of the most foatid ulceration. The bowels were dark and more or less
diseased throughout. The liver was apparently sound, as also was the lungs.

How far this affection of the stomach was brought about or aggravated by the
use of this exorbitant and unreasonable practice of combining the most
heating and stimulating articles in the most concentrated forms and in the
most incredible quantities, is left for the unprejudiced public to judge."

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(Sandra Mueller also found the following, in "A Centennial History of St. Albans, Vermont", organized July 28, 1788. By Henry K. Adams, St. Albans, VT: Wallace Printing Co., 1889)

Page 55:

Title: 'OUR FIRST STEAM DOCTOR"

It is well to mention the advent of the first steam doctor among us. He
daily paraded the streets, with a broad brim white hat, and with Hyacinthine
locks flowing over this shoulders. He was a three-story shirt collar, and
was arrayed in a long dressing gown, of furniture print. At that time there
were fifteen or twenty medical students here, and the following exquisite
lines demonstrates a poet amongth them:

Now's the time for steam and pepper,
Go it wind-bag in a gown,
Raise the dead and cleanse the leper,
Make a doctor of a clown.
With all you ills, I welcom you:
Cases cute and cases chronic,
Cured up by a hot drop tonic,
And a pleasant steam box stew.

But those days have passed away. The old-time calomel pot, and the purgeing,
bleeding, and blistering have almost become obsolete. And today we have
among us, a class of physicians, both schools, who have no reason to yield
the palm of superiority to any one in New England. What are able to grapple
successfully with any disease human flesh in heir to, except three, which
seem to be incurable, viz.: "The itch for glory," "the goitre of egotism,"
and that worst of all fevers, known as "auri sacra fames."

As our physicians like to associate long lives with their profession, this
seems to be the proper place to give them some notice of this work.